The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-08-18
SAVED BY AN OLD AuNrY.
With Her Brown Apron She Blagget
the Express on the Brink of a Chasm

With Her Brown Apron She Ragged
the Express on the Brink Of Chasm
LOUISVILLE, KY, Aug. 15.-The Courier
Journal says that, at about the hour of the
terrible railway disaster at Chatsworth,
Amanda Barker, an aged negress, was walk
ing along the track Of the Cincinnati, Ham
ilton and Indianapolis road, near Glenwood,
Ind, on her way to a farmhouse, where
she was to work during the day. She had
just passed the small station at Glenwood,
which is a lonely, dismal spot between In
dianapolis and Connersville, frequented only
occasionally by the farmers living around,
when, on turning a sharp curve in the road,
she was Mortified to see, some distance ahead,
the smoldering remains of what had a short
while before been a stout, substantial bridge,
connecting embankments $50 feet apart and
spanning a chasm 95 feet deep. The bridge
had evidently been burning during the en-
tire night, for the superstructure was en-
tirely eaten away by the fire, and only
few weak timbers and the three stone piers
were left.
The old negress could not collect herself
for several moments, but it suddenly
dawned upon her that "A train passed that
point some time in the early morning. She
knew that it was q fast one and never
stopped at Glenwood. She turned her steps
backward, intending to flag the train at the
station, but had gone scarcely 100 yards
when she heard the shrill scream of the
whistle, as she thought, directly ahead of
her. 1t was the east, bound lightning ex-
press, due at Glenwood at 5:45 o'clock. Size
tried as hard as she could to get around the
bend which INSTRUCTED the train from view,
all the time tearing and Juggling away at an
old brown apron she wore, which she
wanted to use as a signal flag. Stumbling
and falling, she was kept back considerably,
but she finally broke the apron strings,
which never seemed so tightly tied before,
and almost dropping to the earth with sheer
exhaustion, she rounded the bend, and saw
the train laundering down upon her, only
few hundred feet away. The burning
bridge was about the same distance behind
her, and she knew that to let the train pass
meant certain death to many on board.
Raising the improvised' flag high above her
head she forgot her exhaustion, and waved
it frantically, standing in the middle of the
track, where her presence could not go I'M
noticed. For a while it seemed to her that
no one saw her, but she kept her position,
determined to stop the train or die on the
track
At last the engineer saw her and reversed
his engine, bringing it to a standstill few
yards in front of the old woman.
Leaning out of the cab window, and
thinking the negress drunk or crazy, he
''For Gods sake, mister" she answered,
don't go any further. The bridge is burned
down, and it is right in front of you; in
deed it is"
The trainmenh had by this time been at
tracted to the front of the train by the stop
page at this out-of- the-way place, and, from
the sincerity of the old woman, believed her
story A number of them followed her
around the bend and there verified the truth
of her statement.
All of the passengers were around the
spot in short while, and when they saw
how narrow their escape had been they
could scarcely speak.
A large purse was made up for their ben
efactress, but she positively refused to take
any money, and said she was too happy to
touch anything-that money would only
make her feel bad again. When everyone
on the train was congratulating themselves
on their escape, the old negress became so
happy that she burst into tears, and was so
joyful for awhile that she Rugged several of
the ladies and gentlemen, and danced an
Old-faShiOned iip